''Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata'' (French for ''After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata''; also known as the Dante Sonata) is a
piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with t ...
in one
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
, completed by Hungarian composer
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of his ''
Années de pèlerinage
''Années de pèlerinage'' (French for ''Years of Pilgrimage'') ( S.160, S.161, S.162, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, ''Album d'un voyageur'', his first major published pi ...
'' (''Years of Pilgrimage''). This work of
program music
Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...
was inspired by the reading of
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
's poem “Après un lecture du Dante” (1836).
Background
![Dante Sonata 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Dante_Sonata_1.png)
The ''Dante'' Sonata was originally a small piece entitled ''Fragment after Dante'', consisting of two thematically related
movements
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
, which Liszt composed in the late 1830s.
He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839. When he settled in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
's own work of the same name.
It was published in 1858 as part of ''
Années de pèlerinage
''Années de pèlerinage'' (French for ''Years of Pilgrimage'') ( S.160, S.161, S.162, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, ''Album d'un voyageur'', his first major published pi ...
''.
Composition
![Dante Sonata 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Dante_Sonata_3.png)
The piece is divided into two main subjects. The first, a chromatic theme in
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for t ...
, typifies the wailing of souls in Hell. D minor is a common key for music relating to death, as evidenced by Liszt's
''Totentanz'' and the statue scene of
Wolfgang Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
''. The first theme also heavily uses the
tritone
In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...
(augmented 4th or diminished 5th); this interval was known as the Devil's interval (or "Devil in music") and further reinforces the hellish imagery. The second theme is a
beatific chorale in
F-sharp major
F-sharp major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps.
The F-sharp major scale is:
:
Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically E-f ...
, derived from the first, which represents the joy of those in Heaven.
The key is also symbolic here, being the signature for other uplifting works of Liszt's, including ''Benediction of God in Solitude'' (part of ''
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' (''Poetic and Religious Harmonies''), S.173, is a cycle of piano pieces written by Franz Liszt at WoronińceVoronivtsi the Polish-Ukrainian country estate of Liszt’s mistress Princess Carolyne von Sayn-W ...
'') and ''Les Jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este'' (''Années de pèlerinage'', vol. 3, no. 4).
The secondary theme may also represent
Beatrice, as it is interspersed within chromatic areas, similar to the character's appearances in hell. The piece ends with a rapid chromatic octave section that when played at speed seems to split into three distinct themes, reflecting the three heads of Satan in Dante's
''Inferno''.
See also
*
Dante Symphony
''A Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy'', S.109, or simply the "''Dante Symphony''", is a choral symphony composed by Franz Liszt. Written in the high romantic style, it is based on Dante Alighieri's journey through Hell and Purgatory, as depicted ...
*
Piano Sonata in B minor (Liszt)
The Piano Sonata in B minor (german: Klaviersonate h-moll), S.178, is a piano sonata by Franz Liszt. It was completed in 1853 and published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann.
History
Liszt noted on the sonata's manuscript that ...
References
External links
*
''Années de Pèlerinage'' sheet music download
{{Authority control
Compositions by Franz Liszt
Piano sonatas
1849 compositions
Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
Death in music
Music based on Inferno (Dante)
The Devil in classical music